Retailers are warning that the looming ban on cigarette displays will create a boom in black market tobacco and may prove the final straw for thousands of struggling small shops.

The proposed legislation, which returns to Parliament on October 12, is part of a Government drive to deter young people from smoking.

The new curbs are expected to come into force in supermarkets from 2011 and in small shops from 2013. But convenience store groups say the Government has misled Parliament over the cost to retailers of removing cigarettes from sight.

Black market: Cigarette displays have long been a feature of convenience stores and their absence could create an underground market, retailers say

A similar ban in Canada has been blamed by retailers for the closure
of many convenience stores. It is also said to have fuelled a growing
market in contraband cigarettes.

Dave Bryans, president of the Canadian Convenience Store
Association, said: 'This will break the back of small retailers in the
UK.

'The Canadian Government ignored the possibility that the display
ban would drive many people towards illegal sources for tobacco and now
we have a contraband epidemic. Our research has found that 52 per cent
of the cigarettes sold in this country are now illegally imported and
they are being sold openly in schools.'

Plans to ban tobacco displays in the UK have been supported in the
House of Lords. But Lord Borrie, a former director general of the
Office of Fair Trading, has spoken out against the proposal, saying it
is anti-competitive and ignores the rights of small retailers to sell
legal products.

Many opponents of the ban also dispute claims that the curbs would do anything to reduce smoking levels.

A Government spokesman said: 'There is no evidence from countries
that have already removed cigarette displays that this has increased
illicit trade.

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'Subject to the Health Bill being passed in Parliament, removing
cigarette displays will not stop adult smokers buying their cigarettes
from exactly the same shops as they do now.

'It is hard to imagine why the law-abiding majority of smokers would
go to the trouble of seeking out new sources and suppliers of
cigarettes when the corner shop or supermarket will continue to sell
them, just as they do now.'

But James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience
Stores, said: 'Small stores are already coping with a raft of new laws
and regulations which make it increasingly difficult for them to stay
in business.

'We have had rises in the minimum wage, increases in the amount of
paid holiday that must be given to staff, rising business rates and
various changes to alcohol legislation. All of it means increased costs
and disruption to the retailers.'

Nigel Dowdney, a 54-year-old former smoker who runs two convenience
stores in Norwich, said the attempt to ban tobacco displays was
symptomatic of the Government's lack of support for small businesses.

He said: 'Whenever they want to do something unpopular they deflect the attention on to small businesses.

'They did the same with charging for carrier bags, which they
essentially left up to us. There is no evidence that this draconian law
is going to make any difference to smoking rates, but it is going to
badly affect me and other small shopkeepers.

'I'm the third generation in my family to run a corner shop, but I
don't see any more generations rushing to replace me when it is this
hard to do business.'